Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-06-02
81 WHAT MIGHT Be DONE.
A suCgsstion As TO What Might BE Don1
With Long Time Convicts.


DR.. Seaman. late chief of staff Of the
Blackwell's Island hospital and peniten-
tiary, spoke upon the problem of convict
labor in his recent address before the
Medico-I.egal society. He argues i'll favor
of the English system of employing long
sentence prisoners on great public works,
such as harbor and fortitication making.
An effort is being made in another quar-
ter TO introduce transportation TO Alaska.
But there is a third alternative, suggested
by some very commonplace facts, here
submitted for consideration.
Society is, perhaps unnecessarily, al
fiicted hy having TO bear two enormous
burdens, costly, demoralizing and oppres
siye. These are IL the maintenance OF
criminals, and - the maintenance Of
widows and orphans left destitute by
.'accidents." ! mean, here particularly,
the families Of miners killed by coaipit
explosions, which occur 50 frequently.
Now, the miner is probably the worthlest
working citizen i'll the commonwealth.
For our good he submits not only 10 ire
in-ndous toll, but TO the sacrifice Of sun
light and the pure air ot heaven, ana
Cheerfully faces the risk Of being himself
among the percentage OF miners who
every year get killed, something like one
i'll thirty eight. We owe more TO the
miner than We care TO acknowledge.
On the other hand, the criminal for
feits ordinary sympathy. The worst class,
criminals who have just unfortunately
lodged the hangman, society pronounces
unfit to associate again with the commu-
nifty for long time, If ever, /. e., society
saws they are unfit to live in the world
Yet we eXalt these malefactors 10 the
position Of state pensioners, we give them
paiatial residences, costly staff OF Nv
cried servants, with all the resources OF
medical and sanitary science to prolong
their precious lives to the last possible
gasp-all at the expense of the honest
law abiding, virtuons taxpayer. And the
coal getter' Well, we condemn him TO
banishment into the bowels Of the earth,
with the tolerably sure and certain hope
Of ali ''acciientai explosion, with loss Of
life or limb, and the probable pauperiza-
tion of widows and orphans To follow.
Suppose, by way of experimental re
form. our all wise Legislature were to Sc
lect the life sentence convicts of the most
worthless and repulsiye type, and single
out also the most dangeous mines. Sup
pose they We're TO place the former i'll the
LATTER, say, Tor ten years uahy Iao"l
If, in the mysterious workings OF Provi-
dence, an explosion were to bereave us OF
these our erring brethIen-well, We
should rejoice that the calamity had not
ended the lives of our honest, industrious
miners, who raise their families AS good
ci,izers. On the other hand, the saving
in cost of prisons would go far to insure
the safety OF our worthy miners by pro
viding better preventives Of accidents. y
Only few years ago boat load Of con
yicts We're upset and drowned on North
Carolina river. 1t was sad, very, though
we have not heard of auy serious damage
to society or the constitution III oonse-
quence --Geoffrey Quarles in New York
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